Post-grad Spring Break (it exists if you want it to!)

I'm back!  I made it!  My cruise ship didn't sink!  Oh, lucky me.

I told myself I'd go to bed at a decent hour tonight, and the night goes by fast when you work late, so I'm not going to blog about the trip just yet.  It was a fantastic time, I DIDN'T GET A SUNBURN!, and I didn't go completely broke in the process.  Oh!  And I met so many bros!  Bros from all different culture.  It was an analytical study of bros.  BUT MORE ON THAT LATER.  Becky will kill me if I don't put pictures up soon, since it generally takes me about three months to do so, so I'll share with you this awesome video that I took while I put up Facebook pics.

Basically, my fam and I were all, "this excursion sounds fun, we'll drive around some motor boats and then climb up a waterfall, so scenic."  And then we got in the boats and I swear I almost ran into our cruise ship because that boat was going so damn fast and the guide wouldn't let me slow down.  Just think about it.  Would you trust me piloting your speed boat?  Would you really??  I didn't think so.

Anyways, then we arrive at the Dunn's River Falls, which we realized is basically exactly what it sounds like - a cross between a raging river and a waterfall.  The stones build upon each other, so we were climbing up these humongous rocks as water came pounding down them, with only one another's hands to keep us up.  If this waterfall was in the U.S., you wouldn't be allowed to get anywhere near it.  But, well, since it's a bit hard to describe, here's a video.

CRAP I DON'T KNOW WHERE MY VIDEO WENT!  Sorry, guys.  I guess it's still on my camera.  But here are some pictures.

Yeah, that was a pretty big letdown, wasn't it?  Sorry.  I can't promise I won't do it again.  Love me anyways?

I'll have muchos things to share about St. Patty's Day, fake St. Patty's Day, this one time when I decided it would be a great idea to make a pizza and now I have a lot in my fridge even though I hate cold pizza, and other really interesting things about my life.  REALLY!  You should be quite excited.  But it's supes busy at work these days, what with four Grand Tastings coming up, so I hope to get them posted in a timely fashion.

PS: If I disappear and you're just clamoring for new entries, check out this band: www.ournameisfun.com.  You can listen to the entire album on their site, and I'm going to see them in June (anyone else going?  The tickets sold out in like 20 minutes, before anyone else I know could buy them.  New friends!).  I can already tell they're going to be my band of the season, if you will.

Enjoy the lovely weather!  Happy Spring!

Love,
Courtney

Notes from Laguardia airport

Today I am leaving for a week-long cruise through the Western Caribbean with my parents and the lovely Becky Dube, and I can't wait to enjoy the warm weather and lack of heavy coats. Although, it is going to be 60 to 70 degrees all week here in NYC, so like, that was timed well.

I'm not even on the plane yet, and I have learned several things in my vacation so far.

1) I'm LITERALLY the biggest procrastinator I know. I didn't start packing until 9pm last night. So, with the start of daylight savings time, plus a 7:20am flight, I got approximately 3 hours of sleep. It really might be a problem.

2) It takes 15 minutes to drive from my apartment to Laguardia.

3) So it really wasn't necessary to allow for 45 minutes plus to get here.

4) Getting through security with a dog is just as difficult as getting through security with a baby. Most importantly, I would just like you to know that there was a DOG in front of me in security. A dog!

5) Apparently airport food kiosks don't think it's necessary to have ample bagels on hand at 6am. This is NEW YORK, people, GIVE ME A BAGEL! And, to the lady in front of me who took the last three bagels? Yeah, we're in a fight.

6) There are so many spring breakers. So. Many. Spring breakers.

7) Especially ones from NYU.

8) Including four NYU theatre girls. But probably not the ones who go to Tisch.

9) The four of you. I would like you know that you are the definition of annoying. It's 6:30 in the morning. You are driving me insane.

10) And you other group of kids, no, I don't want to hear about what you did at Latitude last night.

11) I think I'm becoming old and bitter. If I wasn't on my phone I would post a photo of Jen and my trip to NOLA last year to show the difference.

12) This is probably why I need a vacation. VACATION! Watch out, by the day of my return (St. Patty's, of all days) I may have regressed to college spring break status.

So, I won't be in communicado with the world for the next six days or so. Don't be too sad about it. I promise to pay attention during the life boat drill. And trust me, if the boat starts sinking, I definitely, DEFINITELY won't be a hero. Looking out for number one, you guys!

Just kidding. A little.

Have an EXCELLENT week!

Love,
Courtney

Some Thangs I Did in Hawaii

So I didn't blog all week in Hawaii, and that's okay with me because I was too busy doing awesome stuff, eating lots of noms, and falling asleep at 9pm.   But now I'm all like, "crap I was in Hawaii for a week and didn't blog at all and now I'm leaving today" so here's some stuff I did.

I ordered a bagel with veggie cream cheese and they were like, nah man, we don't have that, but we can give you a bagel with cream cheese and veggies on it, so I got this.  And I ate it, and it was delicious.

I waited for like seven million hours in Old Lahaina for the Fourth of July fireworks, and I had to sit on the road, but then these happened, and it was worth it.

I got this sunburn, even though I put on a lot of sunscreen, and I'm just like, how is my skin that red??  How was it that white??  Why does this always happen to me???

I also got a sunburn on my knee in this weird shape because evidently I missed that spot when putting on sunscreen, so it looked like I had some weird skin disease.

I took a ride in the car with my fam up around the top of Maui until it said that the state highway ended, which I didn't really understand because it's not as if the road was that populated before the highway supposedly ended.  And then we saw some cool stuff like this.

And some more cool stuff like this.

I took some goofy pictures.

I can't even pretend to understand myself.

I told my parents what planking was, so they were like, you wanna plank that rock?  So I did and then this happened.

WHEE I'M JUMPING OFF NO WAIT JUST KIDDING I'm afraid of heights.

We went ziplining which was reallysuperawesomecool but apparently I didn't get the joke in this picture.

I have some really neato pictures of ziplining because there were some mad long ziplines, but here's a video my mom took of me on the first (and shortest) one.  

I'm just so cool, bro.  Too cool for school.

And I did some other stuff too like a luau and jetskiing and shopping and eating and stuff but all those pictures are on my camera and I don't have my memory card reader so I guess those will just have to wait!  But now I have to get on a plane and travel like 18 hours back to New York where my apartment and job are waiting for me and it's like WOAH REAL LIFE CRAZY all over again.

I could totally be all cheesy like "Aloha Hawaii" here which is what I would do if I was fourteen and had a LiveJournal but OH HEY WHAT THE HECK!!!....

ALOHA!!!

Courtney

I Appreciate Summer Vacations So Much More

The past couple of days have been pretty insane.  I moved into my apartment, which was ridiculous, but I forgot my camera uploader at the apartment, so I haven't been able to upload any photos.  No photos usually = no blogging in my book, mostly because I rely on pictures to draw people in way too much.

But, I shanked my mom's iPhone in order to take some pics and upload them, so we're back in business.

We spent over 24 hours traveling to Maui, Hawaii, and arrived at about 4pm Hawaii time (what time zone is that?  Hawaii zone?  Island zone?  Middle of the ocean zone?  Speaking of which, what time zone(s) is Alaska in?  I will Google this).  It was such a long trip (I know, shouldn't be complaining, right?), so please forgive my anticipated lack of humor in the blog post.

Apparently my pink hoodie with the hood up was intriguing enough to my mother that she needed to take a picture of it.  My father also says that my orange sunglasses are a "fashion statement," but not in a good way.  I don't think they've come to understand all of my eccentricities yet.

So I took this really flattering photo in retaliation.  I believe I succeeded.

After four flights and six (?) time zones, we arrived in Maui!

It was upon arriving at the hotel, though, that I realized that my parents had evidently decided to relocate us from Connecticut/New York to Hawaii.  The evidence??

This is not a hotel.  This is bigger than my apartment.  What is going on??

There's one bathroom...

...one bedroom...

...a full living/dining room...

...this pretty painting...

...THIS KITCHEN??...

...uh, another bedroom...

...and another bathroom?  Where am I?  What have I become?  WHAT IS THIS PLACE???

Make a funny face in the mirror...

Oh yeah, and this view.  Beautiful!

My brain kindof isn't working any more after nomming on some fish tacos and watching fireworks and not getting any Cold Stone so I think I need to seeps now.  And get a tan tomorrow.

Uh.  Yeah.  That's not gonna happen.  I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Love,

Courtney

SPRING BREAK!

Its official...

Jen and I have arrived in New Orleans!  We're searching for some authentic food and drink, then exploring tonight.  Look out... here comes trouble!

Love,
Courtney

Stormtastic

Pictorial footage of the video I shared the other day...

The sky darkened quickly, and pretty soon there was only a little sliver of light yet.

And as the cloud moved in, so did the rain.

And with rain, there came wind.  You know what doesn't go well with wind?  Beach supplies.  Because, oh yeah, THE WIND BLOWS THEM!

Then a beach umbrella came tumbling down the beach, and I don't have any pictures of this because we were trying to be Good Samaritans and yell to the man who was in the umbrella's way.  It didn't work.  I don't have any pictures of that, either, because I am sympathetic to human pain and I was watching my brother and dad run down to help the guy.

But then like twenty people rushed out of their houses just like us, and we were the furthest away, so they came back.  We later realized that everyone was just running out to get their beach floaties, which were flying away.  We think he was okay, though.

Well, there was an ambulance that went down the street a couple of minutes later.  But we tried.  Oops.

After that, everyone left the beach.  It was pretty dumb that they hadn't before.

This poor Easy-Up was a victim of the storm, though.  It looks like a crab.  Crabbity-crabbity-crab.

Mom and Grandpa were pretty tired after that exciting storm, though, so they took a nap.  It was pretty cute.

--
All in all, I miss our vacation.

I miss our beautiful beachfront house.

I miss our kitchen, where we made pancakes and eggs and bacon and homefries for breakfast every morning.  And I miss our table, where we played lots of board games and I got schooled by an eleven-year-old.

I miss my room, where I read lots of books and watched Say Yes to the Dress.  And BLOGGED, of course.

I MISS OUR PORCH SO MUCH!  Our big porch, where we could sit and look at my father and grandfather be stubborn and get sunburnt on the sand, or where my mother could hope that I wouldn't drown in the surf because obviously I'm five and can't swim.  Not.

Or where, at night, we could look around with my uncle's night vision goggles and watch the rocking chairs creepily rock back and forth in the wind, like there were ghosts!

Damn, I miss that porch.

I don't miss this sliding glass door, though.  It was really heavy.

Yup.  I miss vacation and family and seeing this silly look on Jonathan's face.  Way to be ready for the camera, little bro.  Have I taught you nothing?

Tomorrow, it's back to the daily grind of exercise balls, interns, and TechDP newsletters.  See ya, Fo'Schiessl Fest 2010.  Suggestions for 2011???

Love and No-I'm-never-unpacking-are-you-crazy?,
Courtney

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

As Fo'Schiessl Fest comes to a close, it is time to pack up and leave our lovely place on the beach.  However, the Forces of Nature that I grappled with earlier in the week decided to give us a parting gift, as documented above.

Full farewell entry to come... after I pack my clothes.  If someone had told me I would spend every day in my bathing suit, I would have packed far less.

Love and five perfectly clean (aka, unused) shirts,
Courtney

Arghh, Mateys! We be FO'SCHIESSLIN'!

I haven't posted in a couple of days.  But I'm on vacation.  What's your excuse?

Of course, we all love swim-swim-swimming every day, but for those of us with sunburns that won't go away (aka, ME!), we can't spend all of our time our in the sun.

As I typed that, I walked into my room and checked my sunburn.  Sources confirm that it has faded slightly.  When asked if it looked tanner, my mother tried to tell me that burns very rarely tan.  I pretended not to hear her.

Back to the original topic.  With the monstrous mound of board games that we all brought along, that seemed to be the activity of choice for the afternoon.  Which one did we pick??

Why, Pirates of the Caribbean LIFE, of course.

The object of the game: Make your way through the treacherous Caribbean course, looting and pillaging, to try to have the most money at the end.  And don't get caught in Davy Jones' locker!!!

This was my ship.  Black, like my heart.

...just kidding!!!  I'm too sweet for that.  Right?!

Here are the competitors.  Me with black, Jonathan with yellow, Uncle Kenn with blue, Nick with red, and Aunt Ralene hiding with the green.

Half of us started as landlubbers, and half of us started as pirates, but we all started on our way through the waters.

Note: There really is no half and half with five players, for you picky people.  So if you want specifics, two were landlubbers and three were pirates.  Happy?  I know I am.

We all eventually met up at the shipyard to choose our ships.  By the time I picked, alas, the Black Pearl was gone, so I ended up with the next best thing (in my opinion)...

Meet the FRIGATE, with Captain Will Turner.  I love Will Turner.

I'm such a child.  FRIGATE!  FRIGATE!  FRIGATE!

There were some near collisions into the rocks.

I had just found the macro setting on my camera.  I liked it.

After all of that hard work, we did take a couple of breaks for some chocolate milk...

...and Whoppers.

But the best part always came when someone landed on this RAID symbol.

"RAID, RAID, RAID!!"  We shouted like barbarians.

When someone lands on a Raid space, they must challenge someone.  Usually, they challenge the Black Pearl because if you beat the Black Pearl, you win the Black Pearl.  You also win money.  In this case, it was Nick versus his own father, Uncle Kenn.

Pirates of the Caribbean LIFE severs all familial ties.

Nick spun... a high number.  Uncle Kenn spun...

Looks of shock and awe crossed everyone's faces!  Could it really be...??

NICK WON THE BLACK PEARL!

It took Uncle Kenn a little while to get over that one.

But pretty soon it was time to add mascots to our crew.

Hello, Dog.  I will name you Tucker.  I've always wanted a dog named Tucker.

So here was the motley crew.  FRIGATE!, Mr. Turner, and Tucker the Dog.

Now, may I direct your attention to this pile of LIFE tiles, belonging to no one other than my own brother.  He just kept getting them and getting them, and if you know LIFE, you know that you want tiles at the end.

It's like buried treasure.  HA!  Get it??

What's that?  I'm not funny?  Thanks a lot.

He was like a shark waiting to attack when I tried to swipe one.

But then, my luck changed!  Aunt Ralene had to switch captains with someone, and after reminding her that I had given her a CHARITABLE DONATION of one thousand dollars, she gave me Captain Jack Sparrow.

So here was the new gang... FRIGATE!, Cap'n Jack, and Tucker the Dog.

In the end, we didn't win the war.  Who did win??

My little stinker cousin Nick, who evidently conned us all into losing on the pretense that he's little and cute!

I think this picture says it all.


Love and pirates,
Courtney